Autumn Bargello

This quilt was part of an online class I taught a few years ago about how to make Bargello quilts. After the classes stopped, there has been some demand for a pattern for this quilt, and now I have finally taken the time to edit the class so it fit into a pdf-document.

It is available for purchase through my website.

 

🙂

Eldrid

The Four Seasons Embroidered Frieze

This summer Kaffe Fassett’s exhibition “50 Years of Colour” has been on show at Hadeland Glassverk here in Norway. I finally got to see it during its last week, and it was indeed glorious. But I also got to see a lot more.

Since we had travelled a long way for this, and stayed a couple of nights, we also decided to visit the nearby Blaafarveverket in Modum, as we had heard they usually have some good exhibitions there during summer.

On arrival we were presented with the options of buying discounted tickets for any two of three sites, or all three. We thought that we had time for only two, and when hearing that one of them had some embroidery on show, we decided on that one, in addition to the main site, – which showed paintings in blue colours and also lots of blue glass and china, linked to the former production of cobalt mined in this area.

The second site, Nyfossum, used to be the director’s dwelling. The old house and gardens are being restored to former glory, while the log barn in the photo above has been turned into a gallery to house the annual summer exhibitions.

What a surprise to step into the barn and discover that the embroidery on show was actually THE Four Seasons Frieze, also called the Life Frieze, made by Torvald Moseid during the years 1961-1977. I had read about it in some magazine many, many years ago, and I think I also may have glimpsed it on tv at some time, but had never seen it in “person”.

Impressive is an understatement. It is 62 meters long and 58 centimeters tall, and all in one long piece of linen fabric, embroidered all over, mostly using the couching stitch with yarn spun from wool from the double coated Norwegian tail-less breed Spelsau.

The whole piece was hung around the walls in three separate rooms and a hallway. It was not possible to see all of it at once, – you had to move from room to room.

 

First room, spring

First room, spring

First room, continuing through the door and around all the walls in the next room

Back into the first room and out the door.

Down the hall.

Down the hall and into the third room.

The third room, winter

The third room, winter

The third room.

Below are more photos showing details from the frieze. I have put them into four groups, one for each season.

For every season there was also a small text explaining some of the scenes. As they were only in Norwegian I have tried to write up an English version, but I fear the poetry of the texts got lost in translation.

Spring
Early spring starts with naked trees and dead leaves.

The break through is like a powerful gust of wind. Flocks of migratory birds are carried by the wind. They fly with their heads stretched out towards the spring, and the wind is playing in groves and thickets.

The woods turn green, and flowers spring. The tree of spring spreads its glory like an open fan.

Flowers and plants are grown and tended to. Two who are enthralled with each other stand in the middle of them, as if they are part of the flowers’ beauty and vitality.

 

 

Summer

Summer starts with the big wedding feast. Flutes are played, and in the flowering fields there are undulating rows of dancers.

The summer bride has got her finery on. She has a classic profile, she is pale, and a myrtle garland is tied around her brow. The summer breeze is playing with her long hair. A knot of glorious summer flowers is tied behind her neck, and the wind blows her bridal veil into the wedding feast.

The wedding feast is like a flaming bonfire which turns into cascades of colourful midsummer plants.  The midsummer sun shines in bright red and yellow.

Midsummer blooming has a boundless lavishness of shapes and colours. Large flower bowls are opening up, and children are playing with pollen stamens.

 Autumn

The birds bring the first signs of autumn. They pull golden threads across the earth. The threads turn into light, golden veils which are pulled over the woods.

Nature closes down towards the winter time. Colours and shapes change the trees and plants. Large, brown, knotty plants with filled seed pods are contrasting with the blue.

 

Winter

The winter opens with the stormy wind hitting the trees, and dead leaves in brown, yellow, and red are blown into the air.

Through winter cold and frost the death rider on his wild horse charges into the night. Nature is desolate and silent.

The wind plays with light snowflakes, and they are dancing around like pearl embroidered suns.

In the darkness of the winter night a flaming ice rose shines like the fiery northern lights, filled with hope.

 

Needless to say I was above impressed when walking along the frieze, trying to take it all in, – and even more so now, when working with the photos for this blog post, and I really got to study the details.

One cannot help but wonder about the drive and stamina that the artist would need to finish a piece like this. And even so, when comparing the beginning and the end, one can almost get the impression that he did not want it to end, as the sheer masses and density of the stitches are ever increasing towards the end.

Still, the artist has produced two similar works of art after this one. His second frieze, the 50 meters long Orfeus and Euridike (1978 – 1985), was also displayed at Nyfossum in the neighbouring rooms, and was almost as impressive as this one, although a bit different.  I took lots of photos here as well.

His third and last work of this scale, is the 70 meters long frieze based on Draumkvedet, a Norwegian medieval ballad often compared to Dante’s Divina Commedia.  This was finished in 1993. I should like to see that one as well, – maybe I will be so lucky some time in the future.

🙂

Eldrid

ps

“The Four Seasons” and “Orfeus and Euridike” will hang at Nyfossum till the middle of September this year. There are still two more weeks to get to see them.

Autumn by the Roadside

Both the calendar, the colours, the temperature, and the shorter days tell us that summer is definitely over, and autumn has arrived.

The strawberries we feasted on this summer are finished, but the plants are still a feast for the eyes each time I walk past.

Last week we had some very nice weather, so I brought my camera along as I went for a walk.

At this time of year, we are almost sure to have frost during the night as soon as the skies are clear.

It usually melts when the sun comes out, – at least in places where there are no shadows.

I like the look of the frosty-edged leaves.

It gives each leaf a definition we do not usually see.

These are almost like bird feathers.

The grass in this roadside ditch would not normally catch my eye. But on this day the frost is about to melt when I am passing, and the sun makes everything glitter and shine.

At the top, the ice has turned to water, but further down it is still partly ice.

Looks like something is growing inside the drops, but it is just the reflection of the grass below.

The three photos above are all details picked from the photo below:

Moving the camera closer into the ditch, it reveals treasure upon treasure.

Strings of pearls everywhere.

Further along, there are more interesting plants, like this moss….

.. and a mushroom in permanent shadow, where the ice has not melted since the first frosty night.

More glittering grass….

… and frosted ferns.

Inevitably, we got some more rain, and the beauties above are almost all gone.

This week I have been admiring the birch tree outside the window by my sewing space. Each day the leaves have turned a little more yellow.

We will probably have to cut it down soon, as, when it sowed itself many years ago,  it decided to grow too close to the house.

I kind of like the light filtering through the leaves, but I would not want it to come in through the windows on a stormy day.

🙂

Eldrid

It’s Sewing Season

It is obvious that the sewing season has started again.

When the weather turns wet and colder, – or as in our case this year; continues to be wet and chilly, and evenings become darker and darker; – quilters turn to their sewing.

How do I know?

That’s what I do myself, – and I’m a quilter, – and after a quiet summer, I have recently also been busy packing and sending out fabric prints to other quilters around the world, – or, to be a bit more precise: around the northern hemisphere.

It’s sewing season again 🙂

Eldrid

Frost in November

.. is to be expected, and we had some this year too. Even though I prefer the warmer weather, it is a nice change from all the rain we usually have.

Hoar frost on ground vegetation is also beautiful to watch:

Some interesting shapes:

… and bright contrasts:

The orange plastic rods are lining the roadside, ready for the snow to come:

…which it eventually did, – briefly:

It is almost gone again, but will no doubt return later, – several times.

Eldrid

October

……. where did it go? The month seems to have passed so quickly I hardly noticed we are already into November.

After  two months of almost constant rain, it finally cleared up at the beginning of the month. We had some early frost which brought out the autumn colours.

Early in the month, the sun was high enough, and warm enough, to thaw the frost in the fields as it rose towards midday.

There was a storm or two in between, but we do not mind that when most of the days are sunny and quiet.

The leaves started falling, and were able to settle quietly on the ground or in the streams. Usually they are blown away or swept quickly into the sea by the rushing waters.

Some trees hang onto their leaves longer than others, – or maybe it is the other way around; – the leaves hang onto the trees…..

By now most of them are gone.

The sandbox in the garden is covered with a tarp to keep out the cats. It collected a lot of water throughout September, which froze to ice.

The plastic toys were trapped.

The water on the handrail also froze, creating beautiful patterns.

Below the photo is enhanced in a photo editing program to show the pattern better:

Eldrid

Sunset

Today was the very last sunset before winter, – seen from our house that is.

Because of the mountain to the south, the sun will not shine here till the 13th of February next year.

I am already looking forward to the spring.

Eldrid

Autumn

… is definitely here.

We just have to accept the fact.

I had hoped that September would give us a few sunny days, but there was only one: the 14th.

We’ll see what October will bring.

Eldrid

Gølak is gone

Our faithful, persistent, and sometimes troublesome neighbour is now gone. He lasted only till the second day of the hunting season.

His demise even made it to the local newspaper:

The hunters, who are the local farmers around here, have been eyeing him all summer, and especially the last few weeks. They had given him the name “Gølak”, after the man who used to own the land where he has been roaming all summer.  Our house is also built on a small lot on this land, and the man Gølak was my husband’s granduncle.

Having grazed mainly on the farm fields and in the gardens in the neighbourhood, – almost too close for comfort sometimes, – it is no wonder that “Gølak” was high on the list of animals the farmers wanted to get rid of.  Being a large and fat individual was no drawback either, – rather an added bonus from the hunters’ point of view. At 152 kilogrammes he was close to the previous record weight of 160 kilos.

Below are links to previous blog posts where “Gølak” appears:

Update on the neighbours

Visit from Holland

Midsummer’s Eve

Our neighbours have grown

Our neighbours this year

Eldrid